WGON TV (News Traffic Weather)
WGON WGON was once a fictional television station located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the film George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. It was also the work place of both Francine Parker and Stephen Andrews. Events of Dawn of the Dead During the begining of the undead apocalypse, WGON featured round the clock coverage of the crisis for weeks to follow. The station reported the ever growing chaos as more and more people died in the streets, homes, buildings, schools being devoured by the growing number of zombies nationwide. By the third week of the crisis, many of the employees put in overtime (with some taking to sleeping in the station) to keep things running and to relay information to the public which at that point, was still existent for the most part. Amongst the hard working members of the WGON production crew was Fran, who had slept in one of the control rooms. She wakes up to find the station in complete disarray as the other staff frantically buzzed around the studio to relay rescue stations as well as keeping a live public access talk show, Berman Live, on air. Amidst the chaos, Fran discovered from a colleague that many of the rescue stations that were being broadcast had been abandoned. Fran made the call to take off the inactive rescue stations to her supervisor, Given's, protest to keep them on so viewers can stay tuned in. An argument ensues between the two over the PA which can be heard by everyone in studio. The staff, show host, guest all hear the supervisor's reason for keeping the inactive rescue stations rolling. Some of the crew members become enraged at him for keeping the stations rolling, possibly sending hopeful innocent viewers to a gruesome death with some of the staff even abandoning their post at the consoles. It becomes apparent, to their dismay, that the crew's efforts had been all in vain. Seeing that the situation was a lost cause, Stephen devised to escape with Fran on the WGON traffic copter before anyone found out. They later escaped Philadelphia in the copter with Peter and Rodger not facing any repercussions due to the displacement of the station. Law enforcement hands were too tied to worry about a stolen news copter from a soon to be defunct television station. The nation was put under martial law that night as well. Later on at midnight, the Emergency Network would take over. To quote the cameraman's comment: "Our responsibility is finished". Fate of the staff and WGON itself It is unknown what had happened to the employees once the station went off the air into the eventual collapse of society. It can be assumed that those who remained continued to keep the station running for the Emergency Network in the weeks that followed. As months passed within Dawn of the Dead and possibly years by Day of the Dead, it is highly probable that most, if not all of the former staff of WGON are dead or among the living dead along with the majority of the population, shambling on with no virtuous purpose like they had during their final days of life. As for the station itself, since the Emergency Networks took over, it can be assumed that the building could have served as a new shelter at some point until being completely abandoned/overrun/inhabited by zombies. In short; WGON is no more.